I checked my garlic today and my hardnecks were all yellowing and had some sort of rust while almost all my softnecks had fallen over. All signs that they need to come up sharply and it was just in time. The good news is that I pulled them up in time to keep them from getting moldy or rotting (only just I think, the outer skins on a couple of them were starting to slough off), the bad news is that they are pretty small and not that well formed. There's only 3 or 4 that have the traditional garlic shape with defined cloves in more than 2 dozen I pulled up. Many are the size of a golf ball. The softnecks were all a bit better defined but small.

When I planted my hardnecks I was very careful to separate each clove, however quite a few came up in clumps of 2 or 3 growing together. Did I miss something and not get them separated right, or do they just grow like that sometimes?

There are some that are so small that I don't think they've formed segments and I was thinking I might save them and plant them again in the autumn, will that work? I guess I don't lose anything by trying.

So mixed results for me. I got almost 100% germination and I got to them all in time to harvest them, but because of the atrocious conditions they didn't mature particularly well. Still, I got enough of them that I imagine they'll last me awhile. Given that we've had enough rain to ruin everything I can't complain!

Last year I cured my garlic by hanging it in my conservatory, worked well. I think I'll do that this year as I don't see this weather drying up any time soon! At this rate I won't be harvesting until September!

Thanks for the response Lokelani! I bought my garlic from the isle of wight farm as well but I didn't get through to them when I called. I'm glad I was on the right track by not pulling them up. I'll only do that if the foliage all starts to die. My elephant garlic all speared about 6 weeks ago and my hardnecks were all about a month behind that. It looks like I won't be harvesting until August which is such a huge difference from last year when I had them all up by now. With a bit less sun and a bit more rain maybe I'll get a crop this year!

I've planted some hardneck, softneck, and elephant garlic as well as some shallots in mid-winter. I got 100% germination which pleased me no end and all was going well until all the rain. My softneck and elephant garlic seem to be doing well, but many of my hardnecks are falling over with some small yellowing of the outer leaves. I dug around one and the bulb is no bigger than a golf ball.

If I dig them up right now I get no garlic at all to speak of from them so I am going to just leave them in for awhile and see if they'll grow more. Is there anything I can do to improve their chances? Will caning them up help at all?